GAINESVILLE, Mo. (AP)  The federal Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general is investigating reports that a southern Illinois patio and staircase is made out of military gravestones.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1TNNJI8) reports that Navy veteran Ed Harkreader of Mountain Home, Arkansas, posted on social media last week photographs of the arrangement he found on property in Ozark County, near the Arkansas line.

Chris Erbe is a spokesman for the National Cemetery Administration in Washington. He says the VA’s inspector general’s office is investigating. Erbe adds that military headstones periodically are replaced, but old stones are supposed to be destroyed.

The Post-Dispatch reports that a check of online grave services indicates some of the stones were for gravesites in California, Alabama and Texas.